


For You (I'd Risk It All)

by Snugglebuttkitten



Series: The Wonderful World of Adrimouse [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrimouse AU, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Feels, Mouse!Marinette, Mouse!Marinette x Adrien, Multimouse AU, Protective Multimouse, So much angst, it wasn't supposed to be like this, this hurt to write
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23228950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snugglebuttkitten/pseuds/Snugglebuttkitten
Summary: When Tikki falls ill, it's up to Multimouse to save the day (and a certain blonde model) from Hawkmoth's latest Akuma
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: The Wonderful World of Adrimouse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670059
Comments: 28
Kudos: 167





	For You (I'd Risk It All)

**Author's Note:**

> I Suggest Reading Part 1 before reading this story. Also, guuuys. Over 100 Kudos in one day? Yoll are fantastic and I couldn't not reward your support so here is the second installment of my Adrimouse AU! If you have any ideas for a story with these two, please feel free to leave them in the comments. Or write them yourself! I would love to read other people's take on the Adrimouse Coupling as I don't really think it has been done yet. 
> 
> This is in the same AU as the first story. It takes place a couple weeks after the end of part 1.. Imagine that things have been pretty awkward and unresolved between the two between the kiss in the first one and now.
> 
> Also It wasn't supposed to be this Angsty but like... #sorrynotsorry
> 
> Again, TYSM for the support. Stay Squeaky!
> 
> Kitten, out ;)

When the Akuma struck, it was noon and Marinette was in class. It had been a pretty standard day, so far. She had awoken late to the sound of her mother calling her name, having effectively slept through all thirty six alarms she had set for herself. She had rushed to school, sans breakfast, stumbling into class less than a minute after the bell rang and earning herself a shake of her head from Madame Bustier and an amused grin from Alya. From there, she had spent the day staring dreamily at the back of Adrien’s head until he had to leave for an afternoon Photoshoot. It had been a few weeks since that fateful kiss and things were… not great. In fact, things were pretty awkward as neither seemed ready to bring up what had happened between them. That isn’t to say things were bad. They were just… normal. Mundane, even. 

  
She still visited him practically every other night, often bringing snacks from the Dupain-Cheng bakery and they would spend a good portion of the night talking, watching movies, playing video games and, occasionally, cuddling. Adrien still flirted, but it was less intense as it had been previously which was both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because he had been driving her crazy which was what had prompted her to kiss him in the first place. A curse because why would her kissing him make him flirt less. Had she misread the situation? Did he not think of her that way? What if he was mad she had kissed him and he didn’t really want her to keep coming over!? In a word, this was a travesty.

  
It didn’t help matters that the one she would normally talk to about this refused to do so. Tikki wasn’t happy with her; in fact the tiny Goddess barely spoke to her unless it was about an Akuma anymore, and that saddened her. She knew her companion was disappointed and thought that she was abusing the powers of the Miraculous. And maybe she was, just a bit. But Adrien… he was so lonely in that huge house of his! She hated the idea of stopping their visits, she couldn’t. Not when they brought him so much joy! Or she hoped they brought him Joy. Now she wasn’t so sure. She had even taken to wearing the Mouse Miraculous full time, rather than returning Mullo to the Miracle Box when she was done as she did in the beginning. The little Mouse Kwami definitely wasn’t complaining, and she had to admit a certain kinship to the little fellow.

  
Class was just about to break for lunch when the Akuma stuck, explosions alerting them to the need to take cover. While not in the school, it sounded fairly close. School would likely be cancelled for the rest of the day which was nice. Maybe she could visit Adrien a bit early today, if his Photoshoot was put on hold!. Maybe it was time to clear the air between them. Besides, as much as she loved their late night visits, the lack of sleep was starting to get to her and it was fortunate that Hawkmoth hadn’t been sending out as many Akuma as he normally did. Where usually he sent out three or four a week, minimum, now he was barely sending one a week. She was not complaining at all. Hand shooting up, Marinette requested to go to the bathroom and quickly ducked out of class and scurried to the locker room. It would hopefully be deserted for a hasty transformation.

  
The locker room, and the bathroom beyond, were deserted and she quickly ducked into a stall and opened her purse. The familiar words died from her lips in alarm when Mullo looked up at her, eyes concerned. Tikki was curled on her side at the bottom of the purse looking pale and shaky and surprisingly green for such a bright red creature. She had quietly cursed her bad luck, concern for her friend flickering in her blue eyes. “Tikki, are you okay? You’re not sick, are you?”

  
“I’m sorry, Marinette. I can still try to transform,” the Kwami had whispered, attempting and failing to lift her head.

  
“No, no, we’ll… I’ll save you until the end of the battle so you don’t expend too much energy,” she decided after a moment’s thought. “Then we will figure out if Fu left directions on how to heal you.”

  
“But what about you, Marinette? Chat Noir will need help,” Tikki protested with a small cough. Marinette hesitated before her eyes shifted to a concerned looking Mullo and her fingers grazed the circular pendant at the base of her throat.

  
“You feel up for a battle, Mullo?” She asked, watching as surprise and then delight flashed in the Kwami’s red eyes. “Alright then, Mullo, Let’s Get Squeaky!”

  
The transformation, which was far too familiar by now, washed over her and when the pink light faded, Multimouse was left in place of Marinette. Leaving the bathroom, she leapt through the high windows of the Locker Room and scaled the building to get a sense of where the Akuma was. An explosion from the nearby park answered her unspoken question and without hesitation, she leaped off the roof of the school and made her way to the park.

As a general rule, Adrien was not a fan of Photoshoots. He hated being manhandled, he hated being forced into pose after uncomfortable pose, and hated the fact that he couldn’t wear his Miraculous during the shoot. The shoot had been pretty standard to begin with. Adrien had allowed himself to work almost on autopilot, the poses and expressions pure muscle memory after years of working in the industry. While he worked, he found his thoughts dreamily shifting to Multimouse as they often did. They had been hanging out for a few months, and things seemed to have been going great.When she had first stared showing up, he had been pleasantly surprised at seeing this new side of his shy classmate. Multimouse was playful, confident, and full of fire. Her personality was candid and open, something he was sure that Alya and the other girls in the class were used to but that he usually missed out on due to her stuttering. 

  
He had to admit that he thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with Multimouse. While a part of him still loved Ladybug, would probably always love Ladybug, there was something about this girl that he was starting to see in a whole new light. It was fascinating to see the different facets of her personality. The fiery girl who refused to bow beneath the wrath of a school bully, the compassionate friend who held him while he cried, the playful teasing when he got a bit too excited while describing one of his favorite animes. She was amazing to watch, and she was even more amazing to be around and he could admit in the privacy of his head that more and more, she was taking Ladybug’s spot in his heart. Especially after that kiss!

  
When he had started flirting with Multimouse, it had mostly been to test a theory. While most believed him to be dense and oblivious, he had noticed that Marinette tended to blush and stutter only around him. He had thought she hadn’t liked him for the longest time, or that maybe she was nervous because his dad was her idol, but the more he got to know her, the more his suspicions were piqued. Especially since Marinette stopped stuttering around him more and more as she continued hanging out with him as Multimouse. So when he decided to flirt with her it had been nothing more than a way to test a theory. But then, something shifted. As he had hovered over her on that twister board, as he had delivered his line flawlessly and watched her change three different shades of red, he found his love for Ladybug beginning to splinter.

  
The more he flirted, the more he drew positive reactions from his adorable companion, the more that love for his partner broke apart. His love for Multimouse, for Marinette, snuck up on him. It filled the cracks left behind from his Ladybug infatuation, slowly but surely expanding until it was so all-encompassing that one day he woke up to the realization that he was madly, head over heels, irrevocably in love with Marinette Dupain-Cheng. And that terrified him. Because when he had been in love with Ladybug, there had been a level of anonymity there that was absent now. This wasn’t just some random girl behind a mask, this was Marinette. This was a girl who had exhibited kindness, selflessness, and compassion on numerous occasions. A girl who went out of her way to help and show her appreciation of them through gifts and baked goods. This was a girl that he had referred to as their Everyday Ladybug. But the most terrifying thing of all? Marinette liked him back.

  
With Ladybug, he had never truly stood a chance. Their masks were forever in the way and there was that other boy holding the key to Ladybug’s heart. But he knew Marinette, both in and out of the mask. And while she didn’t know he was Chat Noir, she had probably learned more than enough about him in the last few months that if she didn’t like what she saw, she could have run for the hills. Besides, Marinette wasn’t so shallow that he would only like him for his looks or his money or his connections. Of that, he was absolutely positive. No, if Marinette liked him it was because she saw something in him that was worthy of her love. And he had screwed it up. He had flirted and touched and did everything outside of telling her outright to show he was interested in her. And he thought it had worked, if that kiss was anything to go by.  
But then he had chickened out, and when she had shown up the next night he had acted as if nothing had changed. He still flirted, still cuddled with her every chance he could get, but it wasn’t with the same intensity as before and he knew. He knew that if he didn’t get his act together, she was going to move on to someone like Luka, who made it very clear that he was interested in the raven-haired girl. But everytime he thought about admitting his feelings for her, he froze up. She was just so amazing and so beautiful, how could he not drown in those bluebell eyes everytime she so much as looked at him?

  
Adrien sighed, a dreamy smile crossing his face which only caused his Photographer to offer encouragement and take more photos. He had thought the shoot would be quick and simple, easy enough that he could pass the time daydreaming about bluebell eyes and a constellation of freckles, until his female counterpart was brought in. Carly Pierson was an up-and-coming female Model. She hailed from America, but was at least a quarter French and her agent had wanted her to get exposure in Europe as well as in the states. Carly was one of those girls who was effortlessly pretty. Long, strawberry blonde hair that framed a heart-shaped face in curly waves, big blue eyes set in a freckled face. She was tall, almost as tall as he was, and slim. She was a real Girl Next Door kind of beauty and most guys would immediately be thrilled if she so much as gave them the time of day, let alone if she started flirting with them or hanging off of them. Adrien was… not that guy.

  
Carly was pretty, he could admit that, but if his choice of love interests was anything to go by, he had a definite type that she didn’t fall into. Namely, short half-Asian girls with Blue-black hair and big blue eyes. Granted, Kagami had brown eyes during his brief stint of thinking they could be more than friends, but she fell into the other categories so close enough. Carly, however, was like a burr once she saw something she liked and throughout the photoshoot, she had clung and flirted and touched him. He couldn’t do much about it while Guiseppe was taking pictures, but during their brief break she continued and he had finally had enough. Ever since that first night with Multimouse, when she had firmly told him that no one had a right to touch him without his permission, he had tried hard to make his boundaries clear.

  
Most of the time, this wasn’t really an issue. He would politely explain to his coworkers that he wasn’t interested in them that way and a lot of them were surprisingly good at backing off and even apologizing. Figures with his bad luck, Carly would do the exact opposite. Because when faced with the fact that he wasn’t interested in her, like at all, her bubbly personality suddenly took a 180. It was such a sudden change in demeanor, he almost got whiplash. Her face twisted into a scowl and her lips peeled back as if she were a feral creature ready to pounce. With Multimouse’s conviction in mind, he had stood firm with his boundaries and eventually she had stormed off. Not long after, his break ended and he returned to the shoot where, exactly five second after he had resumed his previous pose, an Akuma attacked. Naturally, it was Carly.

  
Or Glamour, as she angrily proclaimed herself to be. Dressed in a truly atrocious pink glittery bodysuit with her hair piled high atop her head Marie Antoinette style and her face painted white with red lips and blue eyeliner well… she looked terrible. If possible, the southern accent she had adopted was even worse. And her powers were, unfortunately, mostly explosion based. Namely exploding anyone who tried to stand in her way. Great. Since the Akuma was standing between him and his personal tent, Adrien didn’t really have a way to get to his Miraculous so instead he decided to hide until Ladybug arrived on the scene. You could imagine his surprise when it wasn’t Ladybug, but Multimouse who dropped down into the center of the destroyed Photoshoot.

  
What is she doing here? Adrien asked himself in confusion, watching as the girl poked around and surveyed the damage. He looked around, wondering where Ladybug was and trying to fight the pang of fear that filled him at the thought of Marinette fighting an Akua. Sure, she had managed surprisingly well during Kwami Buster but that also hadn’t been a very destructive Akuma. Multimouse had used her brain and wits to outsmart Kwami Buster; she hadn’t actually fought in battle yet. And why did she still have her Miraculous? He had assumed Ladybug just let her borrow it when she wanted to, but had his Lady actually allowed her to keep the Miraculous? It didn’t seem like Ladybug but if she had given Marinette her Miraculous just now, why wasn’t Ladybug with her?

  
Glamour finally seemed to notice Multimouse and his heart froze as the Akuma landed and stared at the raven-haired girl, Hawkmoth’s glowing mask appearing before her eyes. After a moment of internal conversation the mask faded and the Akuma glared at Multimouse. “You! Where are Ladybug and Chat Noir?” She demanded, planting her hands on her hip and glaring at the petite girl. Multimouse shrugged and gestured around to encompass the park as a whole.

  
“Obviously not here, so let’s make this quick. Hand over the Akumatized object, and I won’t hurt you,” she said with a serene smile. Adrien and the Akuma stared at the girl, both momentarily struck dumb. Was this really Marinette? Where was his shy, sweet classmate? Where was his playful, endearing companion. Multimouse was confident and self-assured, but he had never taken her for a fool. He certainly never would have expected her to blatantly challenge an Akuma with a look of boredom and mild annoyance on her face. He was too far away to tell, but he thought he also detected a hint of worry in her gaze as she briefly scanned the area. Was she trying to sound brave to the Akuma while waiting for Chat Noir and Ladybug? Or was she looking for him? Marinette knew he had a photoshoot today, so it was possible she was worried he had gotten hurt.

  
“Insolent girl! I’ll have your head,” the Akuma recovered from the surprise first and tried to blast Multimouse with her camera, but the new heroine was faster. She flipped deftly out of the way with a sort of practiced ease that he had yet to see from any of the temporary heros they had previously employed. Had Ladybug been secretly training Marinette? On the one hand, Ladybug and Marinette did seem to be fairly close. On the other hand, hadn’t Ladybug been the one to tell Marinette that she wouldn’t be able to call on her again? If so, why train her? Why let her keep a Miraculous full time, which he supposed was just speculation but still. A screech of fury had him focusing back on the fight and he watched, awed as Multimouse easily dodged every blast the Akuma threw at her.

  
“Is that the best you can do?” She asked at one point, crouching atop a light pole as she eyeballed the furious Akuma below. Glamour’s breathing was labored from chasing the heroine around and her eyes sparked with fury. “You’ll have to do better than that,” Multimouse sing-songed, prompting another furious screech from the Akuma who blasted the light pole into smithereens, once again missing her true target. Adrien shook himself, realizing that now was the perfect chance for him to run and get his Miraculous. Glamour was plenty distracted by Multimouse and the gray and pink heroine had been steadily guiding her further away from the shoot and the school beyond. Smart. Edging out from behind the tree, Adrien began making his way slowly and carefully across the open expanse between him and his tent, keeping one eye on the battle as he drew uncomfortably close to the two women.

  
He could pinpoint the exact moment that Multimouse spotted him, because she faltered and her eyes widened. It was the opening that Glamour needed, and as the blast from her camera shot towards Multimouse, Adrien found himself calling on every ounce of strength and speed that being Chat Noir had given him and lunged. Her eyes widened as she stared down the blast of light shooting towards her, but Adrien was faster. Thank Plagg, he was faster. His hands connected with her shoulder, throwing the girl back just as the blast intended for her hit him instead.

Multimouse had been pretty proud of herself. While a bit too much of Ladybug’s confidence might have leaked into her persona as Multimouse, she felt she was doing a good job at appearing to be a relatively new Miraculous Holder. Sure, she knew she sounded a little too confident and some of her flips and maneuvers were a bit too advanced for a newbie but those could also be explained away if need be. Either way, she wanted to make sure Hawkmoth thought she was just a new holder, holding off the Akuma until Ladybug and Chat could arrive on the scene. She definitely didn’t need him to know that Ladybug was out of commission and hoped to avoid engaging in a true battle until Chat Noir arrived.

  
So she taunted the Akuma, deftly dodging attack after attack, putting in minimal effort while the Akuma exerted herself in an effort to catch the Mouse Heroine. It was actually kind of fun, putting on a cocky persona that was kind of like a watered down version of her partner, but without the ridiculous puns. When was the last time she had enjoyed a battle? Landing on the ground near a tent that was surprisingly intact still, she grinned at Glamour. The Akuma was panting, whereas she had barely broken a sweat. She was readying another taunt when movement caught her eye and her gaze slid past Glamour. She immediately froze, eyes widening in alarm to find Adrien Agreste standing just behind the Akuma.It was disconcerting seeing him here, and her moment of distraction would cost her.  
At Glamour’s triumphant shout, Multimouse turned and her eyes widened at seeing the blast of white bearing down on her, far too quickly for her to even think about trying to move. She braced herself for the impact, knowing that if she was deleted then there would be no one to purify the Akuma or set the worlds to right. For her lapse of attention, Paris was going to suffer at the hands of a maniac. The impact never came. Or at least, not from the direction she was expecting it. Multimouse found her eyes widening in alarm as they briefly met Adrien’s, right before she was thrown clear of the blast. Right before the blast meant for her, hit him instead. No. No, not him, she silently begged, staring gape mouthed at the black crater where Adrien Agreste had once stood.

  
Multimouse had never understood the term blind rage until that very moment. Everything in her seized, heart leaping up into her throat at watching Adrien essentially be killed right in front of her, and she simply reacted. The Akuma was clearly caught off guard by the way Multimouse had suddenly switched from defensive to offensive. She tried to gain the upperhand, but Multimouse was no green behind the ears rookie. She was a skilled warrior who had been fighting Akuma for over a year now. Glamour didn’t have a chance. Within minutes, she was defeated and the Akuma purified. She hadn’t even needed to use either of her superpowers.

  
Now as Ladybug, Marinette restored order to the world once more and watched as one by one, Glamour’s victims winked back into existence. Including Adrien Agreste. The sense of relief was immense and everything in her wanted to throw herself at him and hug him, assure herself that he was here and alive and safe. But she was Ladybug right now, and even if she was Multimouse, she couldn’t risk letting anyone know that Adrien was favored by one of Paris’ Heroes. So with a strained smile and a wave, she took off for home and tried her best not to look back at the blond.

Adrien knew the second he was no longer alone in his room. It was almost midnight and he was beginning to think that she wasn’t coming, that he had left his window open despite the cold for nothing. The soft thud of her feet hitting the carpet made it well worth it, however, and he swiveled in his desk chair to face her. He wasn’t expecting to find her so close when he turned around, his surprise quickly morphing into shock as her hand connected solidly with his cheek. The sound of the slap seemed to echo in the silence that followed. Adrien stared at her, not fully comprehending what had just happened. His hand reached up, covering his burning cheek as the heroine stared down at him with a righteous fury.

  
“What the hell is wrong with you!?” Her voice, while laced with venom, had an undercurrent of pain and uncertainty, of fear that had his own eyes watering for reasons that had nothing to do with the pain in his cheek.

  
“I… I was just… I was trying to help,” he said, hating how small and meek his voice sounded. “She was going to-”

  
“I know what she was going to do, Adrien! What I don’t understand is why you jumped in the way!?” She growled, and he could tell that she was making an effort to keep her voice down. Adrien frowned up at her.

  
“Because, she could have killed you. I couldn’t let that happen,” he said it like it was the most matter-of-fact thing in the world, because in his eyes it was. “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

  
He didn’t expect his confession to make her cry. As much as he meant it with every fiber of his being, he would have happily kept it to himself if he had known she would react this way. It was with horror that he watched the tears flood her bluebell eyes as a ragged sob tore it’s way from her throat. But even crying did nothing to detract from the fact that she was almost vibrating with anger.

  
“That isn’t your job, Adrien! You aren’t the superhero, I am. It’s my job to keep you safe, not the other way around,” she snarled, wiping furiously at her tears to no avail. Now Adrien was feeling a bit angry. Lips flattening, eyes sharpening, he rose and glared down at her defensively, using his height to his advantage.

  
“So what, you just expect me to stand by and watch you get killed?” He snapped at her, seeing the answering spark of anger in her own gaze. She threw her hands up in exasperation.

  
“Yes, Adrien. I expect you to stand by and watch, just like any other civilian,” she cried, voice rising a bit more than she intended.  
“So I’m just another Civilian to you, is that it?” He knew he was being childish and petty but she was starting to piss him off.  
“When it comes to battles, yes. And like a Civilian, your job is to stay the hell out of my way,” she snapped.

  
“You’re impossible, has anyone ever told you that?” He sneered, hiding the hurt behind his anger. He turned away from her, stalking across the room towards his dresser.

  
“It’s better than being an idiot with a hero complex,” she muttered. He turned to glare at her, but she wasn’t cowed in the slightest.  
“It isn’t a hero complex when you’re protecting someone you lo- like,” he retorted, quickly correcting his near slip of the tongue. A condescending smile that looked extremely out of place on Multimouse’s normally soft features curved her lips.

  
“Please. I don’t need protecting, least of all from you.”

  
She was really starting to get on his nerves. He was torn between yelling at her, kicking her out, or kissing her senseless because as much as she was acting like a brat right now, he had to admit that she was also really hot when she was angry. Smirking, he shrugged. “Clearly, you need someone watching out for you, Princess.”

  
“I am not your Princess,” she growled back. He turned his back on her to hide the flash of pain in his eyes. Okay, so that had hurt quite a bit but she didn’t need to know that. He was fine, this was fine. He would just get his pajamas and take a shower. It had been a long day and turning in early sounded like a really great plan right about now.

  
Turning back to the heroine he said, “I think you should go.” He dropped his gaze, unwilling to see the hurt in her eyes or the tears still streaking her face. When he looked back up, she was gone.

**Author's Note:**

> Let Me Know what you Think!


End file.
